A Comparison of Reflex Thresholds with Sensory Thresholds: The Relation of This Comparison to the Problem of Attention

Martin, Élisabeth; Paul, B. D.; Welles, E. S.

doi:10.2307/1413232

Cited by 4 publications

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“…The concept of a response threshold has found wide applicability in psychology in areas other than psychophysics. For example, Martin, Paul, and Welles (1915) compared reflex and sensory thresholds; Hull (1917) compared the fluctuations of threshold in the formation and retention of associations among the insane; Williams (1918) calculated the associative limen in certain memory experiments; Wells (1919) reported a series of experiments involving the threshold of "conscious" learning; Oberly (1928) compared the "attention span" limen for ungrouped digits and the "memory span" limen for grouped digits; Irwin (1932) investigated the thresholds for the perception of differences in facial expression; Miller (1939) discussed the limen of awareness in the problem of discrimination without awareness; Postman, Bruner, and McGinnies (1948) treated the duration threshold in tachistoscopic presentations as an index of selective perception; Kissen, Gottesfeld, and Dicks (1957) determined the inhibition and tachistoscopic thresholds for sexually charged words; and Corso (1959) studied changes in auditory thresholds as a function of age and sex. In each of these investigations, recourse was taken to the threshold notion denned in a particular manner in order to determine the responsiveness of the human organism under a given set of conditions.…”

Section: Fernberger (1930) Wrotementioning

confidence: 99%

A theoretico-historical review of the threshold concept.

Corso¹

1963

Psychological Bulletin

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This paper traces the concept of threshold from its classical beginnings and shows the relation of the concept to selected issues in contemporary psychology. Emphasis is placed on 3 main problems: the designation of the origin point on a psychological continuum; the interpretation of the sensory threshold as an intervening variable and the issue of sensory continuity-noncontinuity; and the specification of the response threshold as a dependent variable of behavior, rather than an index of organismic sensitivity. Reference is made to adaptation level theory and the theory of signal detection as possible approaches to the development of a complete psychophysics which does not start from the concept of threshold. (74 ref.)

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